Gold Stars And Penalty Flags: Patriots Open Season With A Whimper
BOSTON (CBS) – The first game of the season for the Patriots came in like a thunder but exited like whimper. The Pats got taken to the wood shed in this one and it happened all in the fourth quarter. A lot of work to do. Here are your gold stars and penalty flags.
The Gold Stars:
Trey Flowers gets a gold stars. There weren't many positives for the Pats defense against the Chiefs but Trey Flowers held his own. 2 sacks on the night and he kept Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith, uneasy in the pocket. The Pats have been looking for someone to get to the quarterback for a long time and Trey is that guy. It's been nice to watch him grow.
Danny Amendola gets a gold star. Danny jumped right into the Julian Edelman game plan and started producing. Six catches for 100 yards and made moves to get those numbers after the catch. He got hurt and went down and immediately the Pats offense slowed down. Hopefully, he will be back for week 2.
Julian Edelman gets a gold star. There is no question now that the Pats emotional leader is Julian Edelman. He's usually the first one out there on the field before games catching balls in the warm up. He's the first one dashing down the field in introductions. When it comes to game time, Jules is yelling on the sidelines, he's turning 4 yards into 10 and creating first downs and he's the little guy telling all the big guys to pick it up. That's why it was great to see him included in the pregame ceremony. Julian was part of this game in the beginning and after the Pats loss, it was clear why they will this him this season.
The Penalty Flags:
The Pats defense gets a penalty flag and a game misconduct. Coach Belichick has been a head coach for a long time and his teams have never ever let up 42 points. Coach Belichick has been a head coach for a long time and his teams have never ever let up 537 yards. The Pats defense was terrible. They let up 2 big plays of over 70 yards a piece and they struggled in stopping the run. I know it's early and they will get better. Right now they have only one way to go because getting worse is unthinkable. Also, when Donta' Hightower went down, the team turned to Cassius Marsh and not David Harris. Marsh got here last week and Harris has been here all summer. It just seemed very odd.
Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels get penalty flags. There were a lot of suspect throws by Tom Brady in this game and that included the first one right out of the gate to Dwayne Allen. Brady was 16 for 36, that means there were more passes that missed their mark than hit. As for offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, some of the play calling was sketchy. Chris Hogan had more rushing carries in this game than receptions. They went back to the well with the same play on short yardage situations and kept failing. Why not mix it up? They team put up 27 points but they left way too much out there in the process.
The injury bug gets a penalty flag. This is not the way the Pats wanted to start the season. They already don't have Julian Edelman and then before the game, the team announced they were putting wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell on injured reserved. So he can't get back on the field for at least eight weeks. Then during the game, Danny Amendola suffers a concussion and Dont'a Hightower suffers a knee sprain. The good news is all the Pats guys should be able to get back on the field. The Kansas City Chiefs though lost all pro safety Eric Berry for the season with an Achillies tear. That is rough.
